Local, federal officials will continue monitoring air, water in wake of Shorewood fertilizer plant fire

Local and federal officials said Wednesday they do not believe there’s a public-health safety risk following a fire that destroyed a Shorewood fertilizer plant but they will continue to monitor the air and water sources in the area.

At a press conference, Troy Fire Chief Andy Doyle said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will continue to monitor the air quality following the fire Tuesday morning that destroyed four of the six buildings at Tri-County Stockdale, a farm equipment store, 5520 W. Black Road.

“From their monitoring, there is no public safety risk at this time,” Doyle said.

Jim Mitchell, a U.S. EPA on-scene coordinator, said its agency set up air monitoring networks Tuesday evening that have been gathering data on the air quality. He said the agency has not detected “anything that would be of any concern to public health.”

“We’re going to continue to do air monitoring throughout the rest of the night tonight and into tomorrow,” Mitchell said Wednesday.

Doyle said the owners of property have hired a private contractor to address any environmental issues that may exist or clean up any run-off water “that may or may not be contaminated.” He said that work will be supervised by the Illinois EPA.

Doyle said Tri-County Stockdale sold the kind of fertilizer that is used on residential grass and pesticides used on small farms.

“It’s not large quantities of pesticides or fertilizer,” he said. “I would compare it to if you’re like at a Home Depot or Lowe’s. That type of fertilizer and stuff. It’s not industrial based stuff.”

Because the business sold fertilizer and pesticide, all residents within a two-mile radius northeast of the business Tuesday morning were asked to shelter in place because of possible toxic smoke, Doyle said.

Elizabeth Bilotta, Will County Health Department’s assistant executive director, said the department will work with other agencies to assess wells in the area where the fire occurred. She said the immediate area of where the fire occurred is served by public wells that are about two miles away.

“There are few private wells in the area. … They would be part of the sampling protocol later down the road,” Bilotta said.

The investigation of the fire remains ongoing by the Illinois State Fire Marshal’s Office and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Doyle said.

Doyle said the ATF is involved in the investigation because the agency has more resources and technical expertise.

“We don’t suspect this is a suspicious fire,” Doyle said.

Doyle said he estimated the cost of damages from the fire at more than $1 million.

Doyle said after crews were able to bring the fire under control Tuesday, they continued to put out any more fires or smoke throughout most of the night and into Wednesday morning.

“There still may be a little smoke that comes out of there throughout the next couple days and most of that smoke will be coming from hay or straw that is smoldering,” Doyle said. “That’s kind of hard to put out.”

Doyle said the Troy Fire Protection District has been inundated with calls from residents saying they continue to smell “something burning.”

“Even with the smoke out, you’ll still going to have the odor of the fire with the wind blowing,” Doyle said.